Literacy is the ability to make sense out of, and use print; both as a source for gathering knowledge (reading) as well as a tool for communicating and spreading knowledge (writing). It allows one to think critically of the ideas presented (both own and those of others), and to build more knowledge and understanding using prior experiences (making connections).
In a classroom, literacy is achieved through a balance of a variety of literacy experience that carries the students from a teacher-directed/guided to student-independent experiences and learning.
Our group has chosen Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn Dixie as a literature circle novel. It is a story about making friendships and tolerance, acceptance, and understanding. I am a fan of Kate Di Camillo and have read a few other novels by her but my favorite novels are Because of Winn Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux. I have used her books as read-alouds and as literature circle novels in the past. Because of Winn Dixie lends itself well to the different roles needed in a literature circle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection 2
Should you allow your students to choose their own reading materials? Why?
It is all about balance. To build strong readers, there needs to be a variety of books and genre available for students. I strongly believe that a student should be allowed to self-select reading materials.
In a reading workshop, students are immersed and surrounded by books. There are books that are teacher choice: read-alouds; that lead into a craft or mini lesson, the guided reading titles, and assessment choices. The independent reading choices are also controlled by the teacher; the teacher controls the genre and the level, while the student chooses the title.
To maintain student interest and to motivate and in order to grow lifelong readers, it is important that students are given free choice reading; allowing them to choose books that are of interest to them. Needless to say for them to become successful at self-selected reading choices, strategies are taught for we want the students to choice the books that they are interested in but they are also able to read. The opportunities to self-select are important and need to be part of a classroom routine and have an assigned time slot in the classroom. Reading choices can be done through free reading time, shared reading time, and library time.
How can your motivate your students to read at home?
Not every child comes from a community of readers, so it becomes part of the teacher’s responsibility to awaken a love for reading within each student in his/her classroom. Students and teachers need to realize that reading is not only about gaining information from texts; reading is enjoying the text, making connections, and visualizing.
Modelling is a very powerful tool. At the beginning of every school year, I send an article by prepared by the US Department of Education. Question: Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight? And encourage parents to set aside a family reading time. It can be a silent reading time or a shared/read aloud time.
Modelling is also done in the classroom. I always set 10 minutes of the day with free reading, where students and teacher take the time to read, read, and nothing but read. Students self-select books or magazines from the classroom library, settle in a special place (reading nook) and begin their uninterrupted 10 minutes. During that time, I also allow shared reading to scaffold my weaker readers.
I also believe that building a balanced book collection in the classroom is very important. A collection of leveled books, variety of genres, variety of levels, free choice bins, magazines, fiction, non-fiction, etc… is essential. It sends a message that we as a class are readers. I also set a book borrowing system for the students to check a book out that they are interested in or have started reading to take home if they wish too.
Sharing books by both teacher and students highlight them. Students and teachers can recommend titles of books that have read and discuss these books might trigger interest in other students. Setting a book share time (max. of 3 students a day) during the morning meeting session allows a quick share and 3 comments or questions per book.
Another sharing experience could be with reading buddies where the older student would scaffold the younger ones learning, sharing interesting titles, and becoming a mentor while the younger student would have more time to listen, read with a partner, and have that one on one attention. Inviting “Mystery Readers” (parents, family members, and students) and “V.I.P. Readers” (School Community Members, Community Members, authors) to read aloud favorite children books with the class sets a good example and motivates the students, it sends the message that we all enjoy reading (ESL parents can bring in books in their own language or even a how to book that would teach the students an activity)
Read alouds: I enjoy read alouds and I enjoy reading them out loud with flair. Raise that interest and be theatrical. Read alouds can be the silent listen with intensity time or the “interact with the teacher and book” time. My read-alouds are of 2 types; instructional (reader’s workshop, writer’s workshop, math, social studies, and science books. I use books to teach a craft or a concept) or just a fun listening time (during lunch or snack and at the end of the day, and sometimes as a mean of calming a class or just allowing them to rest a little). The books I read out loud are displayed for them to read during their free reading time and the titles are added to a list on the wall of books shared in the classroom. The read-alouds can also be recommendations made by the children.
Self-selected books: Allowing students the choice of books to read is very motivational, it is important is to teach them the skill for self-selecting so as they can benefit the most of their reading selections. Implementing Literature circles in the classroom allows the students the freedom to also choose.
Show your passion for books. Share your successes and failures. Allow the children to know that you have dropped a book because it was not of any interest to you or it was a challenging book. Children need to know that it is acceptable to change books and to find books too difficult. I have had children read books that I had begun reading during free reading time and found myself uninterested in. I have also had children read books that I was raving about or read during read-alouds.
I allowed myself to use the bonus points from my Scholastic orders to buy books that I used to celebrate minutes in reading logs (I also allowed the free reading, shared reading, and literature circle reading minutes to be added to their reading log. I signed them off in class) and birthday baggies.
(I use reading logs to show students that I am interested in their reading activity. I check them every day and ask about some titles. I ask for suggestions and whether that child would like to share their book in the next meeting).
In conclusion, motivating a student and nurturing a love for reading can be started at home or in the classroom. It is all about discovering and sharing the passion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection 4
What is authentic writing? How can you create authentic writing experiences in your classroom ?
Authentic writing is real writing experiences that are meaningful for the students. They are writing experiences that have a purpose, an audience, a published product, and student choice/interest. Real writing experiences can include a variety of genres and writing styles.
A teacher can create authentic writing experiences by giving the students an audience to write to. It sends a message that we write for the real world. The audience can be a peer, a parent, a community member, or a group of readers. Sharing the writing of a student is motivational and it can be done in many ways: a class room publication, a bulletin display, a celebration of writing, a class letter to community members, and much more. A teacher can also create authentic writing experiences by allowing the student the choice of topics to write about. Children have varied experiences and interests, the lessons in the classroom need to be about strategies, organization, conventions, and craft. To maintain the students’ interest and get them motivated, students have to be given the choice of subject or topic they are to write about. It is about the ownership of the writing.
Reading aloud and immersing students in different types of published work is important to authentic writing. Reading published work and making connections allows the writers to have meaningful experiences.
How would you use/modify reader’s theater in your classroom?
Reader’s theater is one of my favorite shared reading activities in the classroom. I start with the organization; a reading folder for every student to file the reader’s theater scripts. Next I start with simple scripts that allow the practice of fluency and expression in my classroom. I also use the group reading scripts as a way of building confidence in my readers. These scripts are used with the whole classroom where a major part of the text is made of chorus and parts lend themselves to group choral reading such as Jack Prelutsky’s “Boing, Boing, Squeak”.
As we progress through the year, I supply the students with leveled scripts. I allow them to read through, choose roles, problem-solve any possible conflicts in choice, and give them time during class to practice their parts and guide/teach each other. New groups and new scripts are available every other week, and exchanging roles within the group is encouraged.
Some classes enjoyed presenting a reader’s theater script during celebration days and would create masks to wear as props (make sure that mouth area is not covered) other classes (usually the upper grades) tried to script poems and simple stories to read aloud to the class.
Reflection 6: Outline the benefits and the drawbacks of the “Novel in an Hour” exercise.
Novel in an Hour
Benefits of “Novel in an Hour” Strategy
Encourages reluctant readers,
Exposes students to more literature (new titles, authors)
Provides opportunities for differentiation within the classroom setting (activities)
Allows creativity and draws on the strength of the weaker readers
Allows the weaker readers to work in groups and participate in discussions, build vocabulary, comprehension, and strategies.
Allows whole class discussions on character development, plot, setting, timeline, etc.
Allows mini-lessons on summarizing and other strategies (reading and writing) in a chapter/novel setting as opposed to short stories or picture book (mentor texts)
Helps generate interest in the novel/book. Students might wish to add them to their reading baggies or read a copy as a free reading choice
Drawbacks:
I couldn’t think of any (except tearing a book, but even that is acceptable if it is stored and used over and over again. I can actually think of all the tattered books in my classroom library that could have been put to a good use with this strategy)
I think the only drawback is if the teacher limits herself to the time. There may be some needs lessons to work on that might arise from going over a novel in an hour (+)
Choose 5 exercises from pg. 142-168
Exercise
Parts of literacy
Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power
Relationships p. 149
Reading, writing, speaking and listening (if done as pairs or in a group)
Making connections: to understand characters better, relating them to self, other characters, or events.
Questioning: Asking questions about the characters personalities to understand better.
Making inferences based of prior knowledge of characters, actions, and relationships. Reading between the lines.
Finding Facts p. 150
Non-Fiction Reading and writing (researching and writing non-fiction paracraphs)
Questioning: Asking questions to find out more information (research) to better understand events in novel and the how the setting may affect the course of events.
Making connections: Tà world. Using world events to understand the background (eg Because of Winn Dixie, find out more about The American Civil War to better understand Litmus Block and his suffering)
Mini-Book Book Report p. 152-153
Reading, Writing, Speaking (presenting), and Listening ( following directions)
Making connections: writing about the best part of the book (3-4)
Visualizing: Drawing their favorite scene in the book (6) making a mental image from words
Transforming thinking (synthesizing) and making inferences: Write about the main character (2). Analyzing the main character using the information in the book.
T-Shirt p.158
Reading, writing, speaking (read a book, write a caption, presenting)
Visualizing: students draw favorite part in the book and then write a small caption.
Events and Emotions p 162
Reading, writing
Making connections Text to Self.
Making Inference: Reading between the lines, using context clues to better understand.
Reflection 7: Would you use negotiations or debates in your classroom? Why?
Although I have never used either before, I would definitely include these two skills in my classroom. Negotiation, as mentioned in class, is done on a daily basis by the child; to teach it would mean to refine that art. It teaches the child to problem solve and to think outside the box, to look beyond their immediate wants/needs. It also promotes self-control and listening skills.
Debate teaches many skills. It can help students to organize their thoughts in order to communicate them properly, it teaches listening skills, and it provides opportunity for the children to analyze their thinking. Debate prepares the children for public speaking as it fosters clarity and strong oral skills. It also gives the child a chance to voice his/her opinion and promotes teamwork.
What is your definition of literacy?
Literacy is the ability to make sense out of, and use print; both as a source for gathering knowledge (reading) as well as a tool for communicating and spreading knowledge (writing). It allows one to think critically of the ideas presented (both own and those of others), and to build more knowledge and understanding using prior experiences (making connections).
In a classroom, literacy is achieved through a balance of a variety of literacy experience that carries the students from a teacher-directed/guided to student-independent experiences and learning.
Our group has chosen Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn Dixie as a literature circle novel. It is a story about making friendships and tolerance, acceptance, and understanding.
I am a fan of Kate Di Camillo and have read a few other novels by her but my favorite novels are Because of Winn Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux. I have used her books as read-alouds and as literature circle novels in the past. Because of Winn Dixie lends itself well to the different roles needed in a literature circle.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection 2
Should you allow your students to choose their own reading materials? Why?
It is all about balance. To build strong readers, there needs to be a variety of books and genre available for students. I strongly believe that a student should be allowed to self-select reading materials.
In a reading workshop, students are immersed and surrounded by books. There are books that are teacher choice: read-alouds; that lead into a craft or mini lesson, the guided reading titles, and assessment choices. The independent reading choices are also controlled by the teacher; the teacher controls the genre and the level, while the student chooses the title.
To maintain student interest and to motivate and in order to grow lifelong readers, it is important that students are given free choice reading; allowing them to choose books that are of interest to them. Needless to say for them to become successful at self-selected reading choices, strategies are taught for we want the students to choice the books that they are interested in but they are also able to read. The opportunities to self-select are important and need to be part of a classroom routine and have an assigned time slot in the classroom. Reading choices can be done through free reading time, shared reading time, and library time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection 3
How can your motivate your students to read at home?
Not every child comes from a community of readers, so it becomes part of the teacher’s responsibility to awaken a love for reading within each student in his/her classroom. Students and teachers need to realize that reading is not only about gaining information from texts; reading is enjoying the text, making connections, and visualizing.
Modelling is a very powerful tool. At the beginning of every school year, I send an article by prepared by the US Department of Education. Question: Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight? And encourage parents to set aside a family reading time. It can be a silent reading time or a shared/read aloud time.
Modelling is also done in the classroom. I always set 10 minutes of the day with free reading, where students and teacher take the time to read, read, and nothing but read. Students self-select books or magazines from the classroom library, settle in a special place (reading nook) and begin their uninterrupted 10 minutes. During that time, I also allow shared reading to scaffold my weaker readers.
I also believe that building a balanced book collection in the classroom is very important. A collection of leveled books, variety of genres, variety of levels, free choice bins, magazines, fiction, non-fiction, etc… is essential. It sends a message that we as a class are readers. I also set a book borrowing system for the students to check a book out that they are interested in or have started reading to take home if they wish too.
Sharing books by both teacher and students highlight them. Students and teachers can recommend titles of books that have read and discuss these books might trigger interest in other students. Setting a book share time (max. of 3 students a day) during the morning meeting session allows a quick share and 3 comments or questions per book.
Another sharing experience could be with reading buddies where the older student would scaffold the younger ones learning, sharing interesting titles, and becoming a mentor while the younger student would have more time to listen, read with a partner, and have that one on one attention. Inviting “Mystery Readers” (parents, family members, and students) and “V.I.P. Readers” (School Community Members, Community Members, authors) to read aloud favorite children books with the class sets a good example and motivates the students, it sends the message that we all enjoy reading (ESL parents can bring in books in their own language or even a how to book that would teach the students an activity)
Read alouds: I enjoy read alouds and I enjoy reading them out loud with flair. Raise that interest and be theatrical. Read alouds can be the silent listen with intensity time or the “interact with the teacher and book” time. My read-alouds are of 2 types; instructional (reader’s workshop, writer’s workshop, math, social studies, and science books. I use books to teach a craft or a concept) or just a fun listening time (during lunch or snack and at the end of the day, and sometimes as a mean of calming a class or just allowing them to rest a little). The books I read out loud are displayed for them to read during their free reading time and the titles are added to a list on the wall of books shared in the classroom. The read-alouds can also be recommendations made by the children.
Self-selected books: Allowing students the choice of books to read is very motivational, it is important is to teach them the skill for self-selecting so as they can benefit the most of their reading selections. Implementing Literature circles in the classroom allows the students the freedom to also choose.
Show your passion for books. Share your successes and failures. Allow the children to know that you have dropped a book because it was not of any interest to you or it was a challenging book. Children need to know that it is acceptable to change books and to find books too difficult. I have had children read books that I had begun reading during free reading time and found myself uninterested in. I have also had children read books that I was raving about or read during read-alouds.
I allowed myself to use the bonus points from my Scholastic orders to buy books that I used to celebrate minutes in reading logs (I also allowed the free reading, shared reading, and literature circle reading minutes to be added to their reading log. I signed them off in class) and birthday baggies.
(I use reading logs to show students that I am interested in their reading activity. I check them every day and ask about some titles. I ask for suggestions and whether that child would like to share their book in the next meeting).
In conclusion, motivating a student and nurturing a love for reading can be started at home or in the classroom. It is all about discovering and sharing the passion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection 4
What is authentic writing? How can you create authentic writing experiences in your classroom ?
Authentic writing is real writing experiences that are meaningful for the students. They are writing experiences that have a purpose, an audience, a published product, and student choice/interest. Real writing experiences can include a variety of genres and writing styles.
A teacher can create authentic writing experiences by giving the students an audience to write to. It sends a message that we write for the real world. The audience can be a peer, a parent, a community member, or a group of readers. Sharing the writing of a student is motivational and it can be done in many ways: a class room publication, a bulletin display, a celebration of writing, a class letter to community members, and much more. A teacher can also create authentic writing experiences by allowing the student the choice of topics to write about. Children have varied experiences and interests, the lessons in the classroom need to be about strategies, organization, conventions, and craft. To maintain the students’ interest and get them motivated, students have to be given the choice of subject or topic they are to write about. It is about the ownership of the writing.
Reading aloud and immersing students in different types of published work is important to authentic writing. Reading published work and making connections allows the writers to have meaningful experiences.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection 5
How would you use/modify reader’s theater in your classroom?
Reader’s theater is one of my favorite shared reading activities in the classroom. I start with the organization; a reading folder for every student to file the reader’s theater scripts. Next I start with simple scripts that allow the practice of fluency and expression in my classroom. I also use the group reading scripts as a way of building confidence in my readers. These scripts are used with the whole classroom where a major part of the text is made of chorus and parts lend themselves to group choral reading such as Jack Prelutsky’s “Boing, Boing, Squeak”.
As we progress through the year, I supply the students with leveled scripts. I allow them to read through, choose roles, problem-solve any possible conflicts in choice, and give them time during class to practice their parts and guide/teach each other. New groups and new scripts are available every other week, and exchanging roles within the group is encouraged.
Some classes enjoyed presenting a reader’s theater script during celebration days and would create masks to wear as props (make sure that mouth area is not covered) other classes (usually the upper grades) tried to script poems and simple stories to read aloud to the class.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection 6: Outline the benefits and the drawbacks of the “Novel in an Hour” exercise.
Novel in an Hour
Benefits of “Novel in an Hour” Strategy
Drawbacks:
I couldn’t think of any (except tearing a book, but even that is acceptable if it is stored and used over and over again. I can actually think of all the tattered books in my classroom library that could have been put to a good use with this strategy)
I think the only drawback is if the teacher limits herself to the time. There may be some needs lessons to work on that might arise from going over a novel in an hour (+)
Choose 5 exercises from pg. 142-168
(read a book, write a caption, presenting)
Reflection 7: Would you use negotiations or debates in your classroom? Why?
Although I have never used either before, I would definitely include these two skills in my classroom. Negotiation, as mentioned in class, is done on a daily basis by the child; to teach it would mean to refine that art. It teaches the child to problem solve and to think outside the box, to look beyond their immediate wants/needs. It also promotes self-control and listening skills.
Debate teaches many skills. It can help students to organize their thoughts in order to communicate them properly, it teaches listening skills, and it provides opportunity for the children to analyze their thinking. Debate prepares the children for public speaking as it fosters clarity and strong oral skills. It also gives the child a chance to voice his/her opinion and promotes teamwork.